InternationalWashington briefing: Senior Armenian member of parliament to meet members of Congress
Published: Saturday December 12, 2009
Armen Rustamian, one of the four members of Armenia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, chairs the Armenian parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and is the head of the Supreme Council of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Tatul Hakobyan for the Armenian Reporter
Washington - Armen Rustamian, the chairperson of the Armenian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee and a senior member of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), visited Washington on December 9-10 to meet with members of Congress, as well as congressional and White House staff, the ARF said in a statement.
Mr. Rustamian "will reiterate the ARF's continued opposition to the Armenia-Turkey protocols," the statement said in reference to agreements between the Armenian and Turkish governments signed in October but not yet ratified by either country's parliament. According to PanArmenian.net, Armenia's Constitutional Court is due on January 12 to consider whether the protocols are consistent with Armenia's Constitution.
Last March, in a letter to his American counterpart, House Foreign Relations Committee chairperson Howard Berman (D.-Calif.), Mr. Rustamian encouraged moving forward with the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution, arguing that its nonadoption continued to be an obstacle to establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations.
